Paramount, Scott Rudin team on next novel from “Annihilation” author

PanARMENIAN.Net - With the highly anticipated “Annihilation” set to bow next year, Paramount is looking to stay in the Jeff VanderMeer business, as the studio has acquired the rights to his next novel “Borne”, Variety said.

Scott Rudin and Eli Bush, who are producing the big screen adaptation of VanderMeer’s “Annihilation” for Paramount, will produce the new film.

The story follows a young woman named Rachel, who survives as a scavenger in a ruined, dangerous city of the near future. The city is littered with discarded experiments from the Company — a bio-tech firm now seemingly derelict. From one of her scavenging missions, Rachel brings home Borne, who is little more than a green lump, but exudes a strange charisma. And yet, little as she understands what or who Borne may be, she cannot give him up, even as Borne begins to grow and change in unexpected ways.

The novel will be published next spring by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

VanderMeer’s “Annihilation” is one of the more highly anticipated pics of 2017, as it marks writer-director Alex Garland’s follow-up to his critical hit “Ex Machina.” “Annihilation” stars Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac.

VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and most recently authored the New York Times bestselling “Southern Reach” trilogy. Recently, he was named the 2016-17 Trias writer-in-residence for Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Sally Harding at the Cooke Agency represented VanderMeer on the book deal. Joseph Veltre at Gersh handled film rights. Sean McDonald acquired the book for FSG.